The types of sporting gear available to the consumer have increased greatly in recent years. As more and more people are actively engaged in sporting activities, their investment in sporting gear has increased as well. Along with the increased costs of sporting gear, the design and styling of sporting gear has also increased greatly.
These highly-styled sporting gear items can be considered works of art and are not simply functional devices without aesthetic value. On the contrary, these items are highly prized and valued by their owners, who wish to display them to others to enjoy and appreciate, or if the items are intended for sale, to display them to potential customers in an appealing and sophisticated manner. For example, snowboards, surfboards, skateboards, skis and hockey sticks are in many cases highly decorated and may be unique, custom-made items that an owner wishes to display.
Although consumers today have many options available to them in regards with how to attach their sports equipment on a surface such as a wall, most of these options are strictly functional in nature focusing on simply being a storage apparatus and tending to lack an aesthetic appeal especially when the sport object is not in place leaving the apparatus exposed for all to see. Also many of these apparatuses have a limited scope of functionality being only for one specific sport.
Many sport enthusiasts have a desire to display their sport equipment within their home or office. Retailers also are in need of an apparatus that showcases their latest sport equipment for sale. These groups need an apparatus that can handle a wide range of sizes and shapes which would allow for example one apparatus to hold skateboards, snowboards, powder skis or cross country skis or a similar embodiment to allow for baseball bats, tennis rackets, hockey sticks, kayak and canoe paddles, and rowing ores. There is also a need for an apparatus to allow for horizontal, vertical, or diagonal installations maximizing flexibility and choice of placement for the sport enthusiast or retailer.
What is needed then is a system for mounting and displaying sporting gear that securely holds the gear in place but also allows a user to simply and easily remove the gear when desired. The present invention is directed to a system for the mounting and displaying of sport equipment including but not limited to: skateboards, longboards, snowboards, wakeboards, surfboards, snowskates, downhill skis, powder skis, cross country skis, skate skis, baseball bats, hockey sticks, tennis rackets, and paddles.
Objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood after reading the subsequent description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.